Trust What You Know
by BananaLollypop
Summary: Everything has been going perfectly for the team; TOO perfectly, some might say. Before any of them realise what's happening, they're spiraling into an unknown world, and it seems as if they can't even trust each other... *The origins of the 'Trust What You Know' universe, semi-sequel to 'What's the Point' (which is suggested but not required reading)* R&R appreciated muchly!
1. Just a Dream

**AN:** HELLO, DEAREST FRIENDLY READERS! I have returned with the sequel I promised to 'What's the Point?'. Although, it's not _actually_ the sequel... the sequel is going to come much later on. So what I'm actually returning with is the start of a new universe. Let me explain:

'What's the Point?' is now what I see as a prequel to this universe which I have named 'the Trust What You Know universe'. I see you have made a connection to the title of this fanfiction! Well done! This fic is the first part of my new universe, and all future fics I write for AoS will also be a part of this universe (if you're really wondering about the name, I think it sums up Skye and Ward's relationship pretty will and the reasons will become more apprent later on). I'd suggest reading 'What's the Point?', if you haven't already, as it explains the Skyeward dynamics in this fic but it isn't technically necessary as this story has a totally different, in-no-way-related plot.

I'm blabbering a lot, so I'll just leave you to read :3 Enjoy!

* * *

The night of their anniversary, Skye had a nightmare. It was bad enough to wake Ward up, and it took him five minutes to actually drag her from the depths of the dream and back to reality.

The next night, it happened all over again.

And the night after that.

And the night after that.

Ward would be blatantly lying if he said he wasn't worried. Normally, if he asked her, she'd tell him about her nightmares, even if it took a little bit of pushing. This time was different. Skye wouldn't tell him a thing, simply saying that she couldn't. He didn't push it; after a year of being together, he had learnt to accept and respect her decisions completely.

The next night it was Ward waking up from a nightmare, breathing heavily, desperately trying to push away the memories of his brothers that came flooding back to him. Skye was wide awake, too terrified to sleep after having a nightmare of her own earlier on, comforting him.

"It wasn't real," she muttered, squeezing his hand, "It was just a dream."

"That's my line," Ward said quietly, wrapping his arms around her, needing the comfort of feeling her close to him. Skye hugged him back tightly, empathising with him on a level that she never had before.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked quietly after a while.

"Definitely not," Ward scoffed. They laid in silence for what felt like ages before Skye spoke again.

"Surely this isn't normal," she mumbled into his chest, "I haven't had nightmares like this for a year, Grant. You haven't had a nightmare since... well, before we've been together at least. This isn't _right_."

"I know," Ward replied, kissing the top of her head lightly, "But I don't see how this could be anything but coincidence. We haven't had a case in a while now. Usually, our minds don't get a chance to relax properly. This is just a result of us having a chance to actually _think_ for once."

"That was the biggest amount of crap I've ever heard," Skye smirked, "But I don't have a better explanation. So I'll go with that."

Ward kissed her head again, "Try to get some sleep." Skye shook her head.

"I'd rather stay awake," she said quietly, and, for once, Ward didn't argue. Normally he'd protest until she either fell asleep or he did, but, tonight, he understood completely.

* * *

The two emerged from their room the next morning together, neither of them having slept at all for the rest of the night.

Ward disappeared to take a shower, leaving Skye to fall towards the already made pot of coffee in the kitchen. She was surprised to find Fitz with his head on the breakfast bar, eyes closed with an untouched cup of tea next to him.

"Fitz?"

The Scotsman jumped upright, looking around wildly. He relaxed slightly when he saw Skye. "Morning," he muttered.

"Is it?" Skye asked, her eyebrows raised, "Because it looked to me like you were still in night-time mode."

"I haven't been sleeping well," Fitz replied, his voice still barely above a whisper, "Neither has Jemma. We've both been having nightmares." Skye paused in the making of her coffee. She turned around slowly.

"You've been having nightmares?" Skye asked, "And Simmons has as well?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Fitz replied irritably.

"Ward had a nightmare last night," Skye told him, taking her cup and sitting opposite him on a stool, "And I've been having them all week. I had one early last night, and then didn't sleep at all afterwards. I was too sacred." In the past, she'd have had reservations about telling anyone that she was scared. Now, after having a year and a half to learn to trust the team, and them her, she felt that she could tell Fitz in confidence without fear of him doing anything but take her seriously. "So all four of us had nightmares?"

Fitz nodded, "That's... strange," he admitted, frowning in confusion, "Not impossible, but... strange."

"What's strange?" Simmons entered the room looking impossibly perky, a bright smile lighting her face. However Skye could clearly see the black rings beneath her eyes, and she smiled sympathetically as Jemma busied herself with making tea.

"That you've been having nightmares," Skye said, "On the same night as Fitz... And me... And Ward." Simmons dropped her spoon.

"Ward had a nightmare?!" Skye nodded.

"A bad one too," she said quietly, "He didn't want to talk about it, so it must have been."

"Well that _is_... strange," Simmons said, almost copying Fitz's frown. Coulson walked in frowning tiredly, seemingly half dressed in his suit, which lacked a tie and a jacket, the top three buttons of his shirt still undone.

"Coulson, do you-" Skye froze in her question as Coulson held up a finger, telling her to stop talking. She'd been on the wrong end of that finger many a time, normally when she was interrupting him or when she was arguing too much. Coulson filled a cup with black coffee, spooning in a far-too-generous amount of sugar.

"Sir, you're aware that you've put about twelve sugars in your coffee?" Simmons asked carefully.

"I had a rough night," Coulson said as explanation, drinking half of the cup in one go, "A _really_ rough night."

"It's funny you should say that," Skye muttered, "Because, apparently, so did everyone else."

"We all had nightmares, sir," Fitz supplied. Coulson's frown deepened.

"Every single one of you?" Coulson checked, "Even Ward? May?"

"Ward did," Skye confirmed, "I'm not sure about May. I haven't seen her this morning." FitzSimmons agreed, both nodding.

"That's... strange," Coulson said, "And I doubt it's coincidence. I'll contact HQ, see if anything unusual has been going on anywhere. I'll let you know what I find."

* * *

Skye had finished her third cup of coffee by the time she started wondering where Ward was. It had been a good forty minutes since he went to have a shower, and he still hadn't joined her in the kitchen.

She went looking for him, eventually finding him asleep on the bed in their room. He'd obviously fallen asleep as he was getting dressed, as his hands were still clasping a sock that was only half on his foot. Skye considered leaving him to sleep, before properly examining the pained look on his face.

"Ward," she said, shaking his shoulder lightly, "_Grant_. Grant, wake up, it's a dream." She shook his shoulder a little harder, jumping back as his fighting reflexes kicked in as he woke up.

"Sorry," he muttered when he realised it was Skye, "Nightmare... again."

"Yeah, well, here's a funny story, Robot," Skye said, letting him take her hand and pull her down to sit on the bed next to him, "We're not the only ones. FitzSimmons _and_ Coulson all had dreams last night. Bad ones. We've almost exhausted our coffee resources trying to cope with the lack of sleep..."

"Ahhh," Ward sighed longingly, "Coffee. I would kill for some coffee right now."

"You're missing the point," Skye said, "You said last night that us having nightmares was nothing but coincidence. But I don't think it's likely to be a coincidence when five different people have nightmares in the same night, do you?"

"I guess not," Ward frowned.

"Coulson's getting in touch with S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ," Skye told him, leaning her head on his shoulder. He immediately wrapped an arm around her back, the action practically a reflex by now, "Hopefully they'll have an idea of what it could be." She stifled a yawn behind her hand.

"I'd say get some sleep, but I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Ward said quietly, leaning his head on top of hers.

"Definitely not a good idea," Skye agreed, "I'm going to do some research, see if anything like this has ever happened before. There's always a chance right?" Ward nodded.

"I guess it's worth a try," he agreed, "I'm going to make some coffee."

"Bring me some?" Skye asked, looking at him pleadingly. Ward rolled his eyes.

"I suppose, as it's you..." he smiled slightly, knowing that Skye had been suffering with a lack of sleep for longer than he had and probably needed the caffeine more.

"Thank you," Skye said kissing him lightly before he stood up, "Also, could you talk to May about all this? I've got a feeling that we're going to need the whole picture to figure this one out."

Ward nodding, holding onto her hand for just that little bit longer before he left the room. Skye sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly before standing up and leaving as well.

* * *

**And there it is! So, obviously this is very different to WtP?, and it's only the prologue (though I felt like I got quite a lot into it). I haven't set myself a chapter limit this time (I never stick to them anyways), so I haven't really got a clue of how long this is going to be. **

**Pretty, pretty please leave a review if you deem this chapter worthy; they make my day a thousand times over (and, as it is the first of December, I will most definitely consider any reviews as early christmas gifts for which I will love you forever!) Until the next time dear readers: thank you ever so much for reading! TTFN :3**


	2. Just to Make Things Complicated

**AN: **I'm sorry this took so long D: I was ready to update two days ago, but I've had some technical difficulties (my computer nearly exploded :L). But, this is a longer chapter. So that's good :3 Enjoy!

KEY: normal: real life, _italics_: dream

* * *

Skye pushed her laptop away irritably; she'd been searching the internet for hours and hadn't been able to find anything useful about their dream situation. Coulson had let her know that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have any record of similar events, nor of any strange happenings anywhere in the world within the previous twenty four hours, but that they were looking into it.

This, however, did absolutely nothing to improve Skye's mood. She hadn't got more than seven hours sleep over five days, and it was beginning to take its toll. She was subconsciously weighing up the pros and cons of falling asleep (pro: she might not be as exhausted when she woke up; con: she was _not_ prepared to have the crap scared out of her by another stupid nightmare).

Trying to stave off her exhaustion for a little bit longer, she decided to go and see FitzSimmons, who were searching for temporal displacement energy (whatever that was) from their lab.

"Hey," she said, walking in. Simmons looked up from the screen in front of her, smiling when she saw Skye.

"Hi," she replied, "Any luck with the research?"

"Nope," Skye said, "Did you find any temporal thingamajigs?" Fitz smirked.

"Is 'thingamajigs' a technical term?" he asked. Skye rolled her eyes, "No, we haven't," Fitz continued, rubbing a hand over his face, "And we're almost out of coffee."

"Good god, it's the end of the world!" Skye said, her eyes widening comically. Simmons laughed quietly as Fitz shared a grin with Skye.

"Eugh," Fitz groaned, "If I don't get a good night's sleep soon, I'm going to go insane." Simmons, rubbed his back comfortingly.

"We'll work it out," she said, her face falling slightly, "Whatever 'it' is..."

"That's our main problem, right there," Skye said, taking a chocolate biscuit off a plate on the worktop and biting into it, ignoring Fitz's glare as she did so, "We don't even know what we're looking for. If we knew that it was a device, then we'd be able to focus our searches, but we don't."

The automatic doors opened behind her, and she glanced round to see May standing in the doorway, "Coulson's called a meeting," she told them, "Briefing room, five minutes."

Skye mock saluted her as she left, just catching the other woman's eye roll as she did so. Grinning she turned back to FitzSimmons, "Do you think Coulson found something?" she asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Fitz said, taking the last of the biscuit from Skye's hand and finishing it off, grinning at her offended look. "Don't eat my biscuits."

"We call them cookies in America, British boy," Skye smirked, following him out.

"Good lord, not this again," Simmons muttered, "Honestly, isn't it bad enough that this comes up every time we play Scrabble?"

* * *

"I just wanted to let you all know that we'll be landing at a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Russia in the next eight hours or so. It's the closest one to us at the moment, so unfortunately we can't get down any quicker. I told HQ about our current situation; they agreed that this is unlikely to be a coincidence. They think there's a high chance that the source of the problem is the plane, so we'll be on the ground for at least a few days whilst they make sure everything's in working order."

"And if everything's fine?" May asked, "What then?" Coulson sighed.

"Then we're back to square one." He said honestly, "Skye, did you manage to find anything similar online?"

"Not a thing," she said, slightly annoyed that she couldn't give him a more positive answer, "I've looked everywhere, both where I'm allowed and where I'm not. Nothing that's even remotely similar to this has been recorded anywhere, that I can get into, online."

"Sir, everything about this feels wrong," Ward said frowning, "I know there's a first time for everything, but... surely there should be _some_ sort of explanation?"

"I know," Coulson replied, "But for now, that's all we have to work with. I suggest you all find something active to do for the next few hours; anything that'll stop you falling asleep." With a nod of his head, he dismissed the group.

FitzSimmons wandered back to their lab, their hands holding loosely. May disappeared to fly the plane, whilst Coulson once again climbed the stairs to his office. Skye leaned her elbows on the table in front of her, resting her head in her hands. Ward slipped an arm around her waist, hugging her close to him.

"Hmm," Skye murmured quietly, "I am never going to under-appreciate sleep again." Ward chuckled.

"You and me both," he replied, his breath moving the hair by her ear, "Do you want to do something? Maybe watch a movie?"

Skye shook her head, "You know I can never sit through an entire movie," she said, smiling slightly, "You can read your book or whatever. I'm going to try walking around for a bit. My head's all over the place."

"Are you sure?" Ward checked. Skye turned around, resting her hands on his shoulders as his moved to her hips.

"Very sure," she said, kissing him lightly, "Go, Robot. I'll be fine, I promise. There's only so much trouble I can get into on a plane that's thirty thousand feet in the air."

Ward kissed her cheek as she hugged him, "Come and find me when you're done. I'll teach you how to play chess."

"What, to _bore_ me to sleep?" she teased, moving towards the door, "Doesn't that defeat the object? Besides, I _can_ play chess!"

"Oh, that's what you call 'playing'?" he mocked, grinned. Skye shoved him playfully.

"Go and finish the Hunger Games, Grant," she said, rolling her eyes, "Then you'll actually understand the jokes I share with Stark about Hawkeye." Ward copied her eye roll, pausing before entering their room.

"You'll definitely be okay?" he asked, his smile falling slightly as he turned seriously. Skye nodded, waving goodbye before setting out across the plane.

* * *

As much as Skye had originally hated the boxing element of her training, she had to admit that it was really quite therapeutic. Having done a full circuit of the plane, she'd made her way down to the cargo hold, where the bag was still hanging from the ceiling from when Ward had used it the night before.

She'd been jabbing at the bag for at least half an hour, and was privately quite impressed at how much her stamina had improved within the previous year and a half. At the beginning, ten minutes keeping her hands up had been a daunting task; now she'd done three times that without even thinking about it.

It took Ward a little over an hour to finish the first Hunger Games book (he'd enjoyed it more than he first anticipated), and when Skye still hadn't returned, he decided to go out looking for her. Even though his mind was telling him that it was unlikely that Skye had sat down and fallen asleep somewhere, he knew that it was still a possibility.

When he finally found her, still attacking the bag with all of her strength, he sighed. He walked quietly down the stairs, not missing the flicker of her eyes as she noticed his presence. She didn't stop in her exercise; if anything she became more determined, her hits landing faster.

Ward stood watching for a moment, trying to work out what kind of emotions Skye was feeling; he had learned the hard way that interrupting Skye's angry or upset rampaging was a _bad_ idea.

As she moved to land another punch, he caught her hand, stopping it before it connected with the bag. Skye sighed, pulling her hand away and moving to get a drink.

"How long have you been working at that?" Ward asked. Skye glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Forty six minutes," she replied. Ward raised his eyebrows, holding out his hand for hers. She drank half of her bottle of wattle in one go as he carefully unwound the tape from her right hand. He rubbed his thumb gently over her knuckles, which were an angry red from her workout.

"That's an impressive time," he commented, "Was that a good idea when you're exhausted and can't sleep?"

"Probably not," Skye shrugged, "But the adrenalin should keep me going for a little bit longer."

Ward finished unwrapping her other hand, lifting her hands up to kiss her knuckles, "Better?" he asked, smirking. Skye smiled.

"Better," she replied, "God, I'm hungry..."

"Lunch?" Ward asked.

"Ice cream," Skye decided, pulling on a zip-up sweater before taking his hand and pulling him up the stairs.

"Your exhausted self doesn't make very good decisions." Ward told her as they climbed. Skye stopped short, turning around with a serious look on her face.

"Grant, if you don't think ice cream is a good idea, then... I don't think this relationship is going to work." Ward held up his free hand in surrender.

"Fine, fine," he said, "Ice cream is always a good idea. But I would kill for a toasted sandwich."

Skye considered, "I suppose I could compromise..." Ward didn't say anything, merely staring at her until she continued, "If you make me a toasted sandwich... I'll share my ice cream." Ward grinned.

"How can I say no?"

* * *

_Skye cursed herself for falling asleep; they were only five hours away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. She should have been able to hold on for that little bit longer. Instead, she was having yet another nightmare, and, for the moment, she was too terrified to feel much more than mild annoyance t her situation. _

_She could hear the heavy footsteps of god-knows-who (or __**what**__) running along behind her, forcing her to speed up in an attempt to get away. She was running through a forest, tall trees standing a few feet away from each other, bushes as high as her waist lining her footpath. _

_As she ran past a tree, becoming more conscious of the ever-presence threat of whatever was chasing her by the second, she scraped her elbow on the bark, gasping as it grazed her skin. The wound was stinging as she ran, not taking kindly to being whipped by a cold wind caused by Skye's running. _

_Something about the cut on her arm didn't feel quite right, but for the life of her, she couldn't work out __**why**__. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing a figure getting closer and closer. Barely stopping a scream escaping her lips, she pushed forward, desperation taking over her senses, her instincts kicking in and adrenalin pumping through her body. _

_Just as she spotted a building up ahead, and hand clamped down on her shoulder. Screaming in surprise and fear, she whipped around, her fist flying towards her attacker-_

"SKYE!" Skye woke up with a scream, her arms flailing around, barely missing Coulson's face. She breathed heavily as she took in her surroundings.

"I'm on the Bus," she muttered, "Okay. Good. The Bus is good," she reached a hand up to her face, groaning, "Crap! How did I fall asleep?!"

"That's a good question," Ward muttered. He was crouched on her right side on the kitchen floor, Coulson on her left, Simmons hovering by her head with a hand-held scanner.

"Don't move," Simmons said firmly, "I haven't finished ruling everything other than exhaustion out yet. I don't want you doing any unnecessary damage."

"Why am I on the floor?" Skye asked suspiciously.

"We were coming in to get sandwiches," Ward started.

"And ice cream," Skye agreed, "I remember that part."

"You were just about to sit down and then you collapsed," Ward said, "I tried waking you up, but you were completely out of it. So I called Coulson and Simmons, and then you started muttering about running..."

He trailed off and Skye frowned, "I'm going to get up now," she said after a moment, ignoring the sigh of annoyance from Simmons. Ward and Coulson both helped her stand, neither of them recognising the glares Skye threw at them for doing so.

"Down to the lab, then," Simmons said, leaving no room for compromise, "I suppose that would be slightly more practical than the kitchen floor..."

When they reached the lab, Fitz looked confused as the four of them walked in; Simmons explained the situation to him as Skye sat down on a chair that Coulson brought over.

"I was running," she said, allowing Simmons to fuss around her, "In my dream, I was... running. From something, or someone, through a forest towards a building."

"What kind of building?" Coulson asked.

"Does it matter?" Skye asked.

"Maybe," he shrugged, "No one knows anything about this. The smallest detail might be what solves the problem."

Skye sighed, "It was like a little... outhouse kind of thing, I guess," she said, "Like on a farm. It only had one light on that I could see, and it was dark and there were trees everywhere..."

"Do you remember anything else?" Ward asked. Skye frowned.

"It was cold," she said, "Really cold." She shivered as she remembered it, pulling her sweater tighter around her. She winced as the fabric rubbed against her elbow, frowned confusedly. She pulled her arm out of the sleeve, her eyes widening as she saw a graze on her shoulder.

"How did you do that?" Coulson asked.

"I scraped it," Skye muttered, "As I ran past a tree. _In my dream_."

"That's impossible," Fitz said, "Really truly impossible."

"Agreed," Simmons said, "Your dream was probably just a subconscious manifestation of what was happening in real life."

"So I hurt my arm on a clear kitchen floor whilst wearing a sweater?" Skye said, looking expectantly at the two scientists. They exchanged a look, not having to use words to have a debate anymore (their relationship had mostly intensified the aspects of the friendship they had before, which, in times like these, came in incredibly useful).

"Well then," Fitz muttered, "There really is only one other explanation."

"Which is?" Coulson asked.

"Skye describe the scene you were in to Fitz," Simmons said, handing the scientist in question a tablet.

"Why?" Skye asked, confused.

"Just trust her," Fitz said, "You said it was a forest? And it was really cold?" Skye nodded. "Right, so we're looking at America, because you couldn't really transmit further than within the country, so that narrows it down to far too big an area..." Fitz muttered to himself, "Did you see anything behind the little building?" he asked, looking up at Skye.

"I don't know," Skye said exasperatedly, "Maybe some hills? More forest?"

"What about a mountain?" Fitz asked suddenly. Skye thought back before nodding.

"I think there was a mountain," she said, "There was definitely something big. But what does this have to do with anything?!"

"It was real," Fitz said. Silence fell in the room as his words sunk in.

"What do you mean, it was real?" Skye asked, her eyes wide as she looked to Fitz for further explanation.

"It wasn't a dream," the scientist looked up from the tablet in his hands, his face pale and worried, "I've got it right here, with pictures, exactly as you described. Whatever that was, Skye... it wasn't a dream."

* * *

**And there it is! I think I should be able to update every 3-4 days (maybe sooner if this is still in progress during the holidays). I don't have much time to write this AN so I'll just leave it at that. **

**Reviews are like snow days that get me off school (context: I love snow days) and therefore should you leave a review I shall shower you in an array of love and virtual cookies! Until next time, dear readers: thanks for reading and TTFN!**


	3. Just Impossibly Possible

**AN:** Yes, yes, I know. I said I'd update soon and I didn't. I lied *holds hands up* I apologise. But this chapter was just awful to write and it took me 5ever to get it to a point that I liked. And I also had 2 speaking assessments (one English, one French) that I had to memorise; a total of 17 minutes of continual speaking in two different languages on two different subjects. That's HARD guys.

Anyways, I finally got this out, so I'mma shut up and let you read: Enjoy!

* * *

_**Previously-**_

_"What do you mean, it was real?" Skye asked, her eyes wide as she looked to Fitz for further explanation._

_"It wasn't a dream," the scientist looked up from the tablet in his hands, his face pale and worried, "I've got it right here, with pictures, exactly as you described. Whatever that was, Skye... it wasn't a dream."_

* * *

"You've got to be kidding," Ward said firmly, "There is absolutely no way that it could be real."

"But Skye's arm proves that-"

"How do we know that that happened whilst she was dreaming?" Ward interrupted Simmons, "She was attacking a punch bag before we went to the kitchen; it could have happened then!"

"Ward you _saw_ my arm," Skye protested, "I hadn't hurt it until _after_ the dream. You're being ridiculous-"

"_I'm _being ridiculous?!"

"Ward, you're not understanding what Simmons and I were trying to say," Fitz stepped in, sensing that an argument between Skye and Ward would only get out of hand if allowed to continue, "We're not saying that Skye was literally there-"

"Actually, Fitz, that's exactly what we're saying," Simmons said quietly.

"Well, yes, but only in a technical sense-"

"Well, this _is_ a technical problem, _Leo_-"

"If it were a technical problem then I would know how to fix it, _Jemma_-"

"Why is it so hard for you to grasp that you can't know _everything_-"

"Enough." Coulson said firmly. They all turned to face him, "Listen. Whatever this is, we're going to have to work it out. We're all exhausted and, apparently, the longer we go without sleep, the more likely it is for us to slip into another nightmare. We're starting to run out of coffee; there should be enough to last the six of us another two hours or so. That means we've still got to get through five hours with no sleep and no stimulants."

"Actually sir, we've still got a lot of tea," Simmons said.

"And tea has more caffeine than coffee," Ward finished for her. A little over a year ago, when they'd been looking for Skye after she'd been kidnapped by the psychotic head of the Rising Tide, Simmons and Ward had refused to sleep, choosing instead to continue the search for their resident hacktivist whilst the others rested. It wasn't a time any of them particularly wanted to remember, and Simmons was surprised that Ward remembered the tiny fact she'd mentioned.

"Well then," Coulson said, "We'll have to develop a liking of tea. Honestly, I don't know how British people do it."

"It's a talent," Fitz smirked, "And it's drilled into you from moment you can drink it."

"Simmons, I'd like you to run some tests on Skye," Coulson said, his hand moving to rest on Skye's shoulder as she looked up at him in surprise, "I'm not convinced that these dreams are without physical consequence, and your arm needs looking at." He told her, "And I've got a feeling that Fitz is going to need some isolation to get his head around things." Simmons nodded.

"Of course," she said, busying herself with moving around and collecting supplies.

"Fitz, I need you to start some scans on the plane," Coulson continued, "It can't hurt to have some information for the engineers on the ground when we land." Fitz nodded. Ward was looking agitated as he stood protectively beside Skye, his hand resting both fondly and worriedly on her arm, "Ward, a word?" After a pointed look from Skye telling him that she would be absolutely fine in Simmons' more than capable hands, Ward followed Coulson from the lab, still reluctant to leave his girlfriend without his protection.

"You're compromised," Coulson stated when they reached his office. Ward sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

"We're _all_ compromised, sir," Ward said, trying his hardest to be respectful.

"You more than the rest of us," Coulson reasoned, "You're letting your worry for Skye dictate your reasoning. You know that FitzSimmons are rarely wrong in their hypotheses, yet you still argued against them."

"Sir, what we're looking at here isn't anything we've seen before." Ward started.

"Which means that you should be looking at it with an open mind as opposed to disregarding any and all ideas because you think they're ridiculous." Coulson interrupted. Ward sighed again.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked, confused as to what his boss' motives actually were.

"I don't want you to say anything," Coulson replied, "I want you to take control of your emotions and I want you to start using your head to rule your words instead of your heart. I know you're worried about Skye. We all are, believe me. But if we don't figure out what's happening here, then we're all going to end up like she is now, and then nothing will ever get solved." Ward nodded, moving to leave as Coulson sat down behind his desk. He paused at the door, turning around to face Coulson again.

"What do you think this is?" he asked. The older man looked up at him, a slight frown crossing his face.

"Honestly? I don't know," he replied, "But whatever it is, it's dangerous. This time Skye's got a scraped arm. Next... we could all be killing each other without even realising it. This isn't the time to work out every exact detail of what's going on, nor is it likely for us to find a solution. For now, we need to know what to do to face the next dilemma; we'll just have to take each problem as it comes." Ward nodded, walking out and closing the door behind him.

He walked to the kitchen, needing time to get his head straight before facing Skye again. Coulson had been right; he _was_ letting his heart rule his head. He chuckled darkly at the irony of the situation; not two years ago, Ward had prided himself in never letting himself be emotionally compromised. The second Skye stepped into the mix, that legacy had been thrown out the window. As much as he was trying to think of that as a bad thing, he couldn't disregard his love for Skye, because that was what it was; you couldn't _choose_ who you fell in love with, after all.

* * *

"Anything interesting?" Skye asked as Simmons stared intently through a microscope at a blood sample she'd taken almost ten minutes ago.

"You could say that," Simmons murmured.

"Anything I'm actually going to understand?" she questioned, tapping her fingers on the table beside her impatiently.

"There is absolutely _nothing_ wrong with you," Simmons said frustratedly, "If I go by your blood, then you're a _perfect_ human being. There isn't even an increase in white blood cells which is ridiculous because your arm-" she stopped herself as she looked up and glanced at Skye, doing a double take before looking up properly, "Your arm is... totally fine..." Skye looked confused, before glancing down at her arm and realising what Simmons was saying. Where just moments ago her arm had been bleeding profusely, the skin was perfectly intact, the graze gone.

"_What_?!" Skye exclaimed, "Now _that_... _that_ is impossible! Isn't it?!"

"Totally impossible," Simmons agreed, "Really, truly, totally impossible." The two fell into silence, both staring at Skye's arm as if they were expecting it to suddenly be hurt again.

"What's going on here, Jemma?" Skye asked quietly.

"God only knows," Simmons muttered. Her computer beeped behind her and she moved to check it, "You're temperature is dropping." She said, "Come on. Upstairs. Now. You need caffeine."

"Erm, okay," Skye replied as Simmons pushed her towards the stairs, "Why?"

"Your body is cooling itself down so that it's ready to sleep," Skye glanced over her shoulder at Simmons, who was frowning in thought, "Therefore, caffeine. I don't know how your arm fixed itself, but if you _die_ in a dream, I doubt we'll be so lucky..."

* * *

The two found Ward in the kitchen, staring at the kitchen counter as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Hearing them enter, he looked up.

"Hey," he said, frowning in surprise, "That was quick. How's your-" before Ward could finish his sentence, Skye was showing him her perfectly-fine arm with a grimace.

"Here," Simmons slid a cup across the breakfast bar to Skye, who sipped from it without looking at its contents. She spluttered as the taste assaulted her tongue.

"That," she muttered, "Is revolting. _How_ do you drink that?!"

"I, personally, have it with a reasonable amount of milk and two spoonfuls of sugar, but Fitz prefers his black. I don't understand it myself, black tea is just _wrong_ in so many ways-"

"Jemma," Skye interrupted, "Seriously. That's just... no."

"Drink it," Simmons insisted, "With any luck, which you seem to be having quite a lot of at the moment, it'll keep you awake for another hour at least." As the biochemist turned away, Skye frowned, sliding the cup to Ward.

"Try it," she murmured, "And tell me that it's drinkable." Ward pulled a face but did as she said, taking a sip from the cup and regretting it immediately. He swallowed distastefully and glared at the mug.

"If we ever decide to settle down properly," he said quietly, "And I really can't see that happening any time soon... we are _not_ moving to Britain."

"Agreed," Skye said, drinking a tiny amount from the cup as Simmons turned around and glared at her threateningly.

"So what's the deal with Skye's arm?" Ward asked, trying to stop Simmons from exploding, "That's not... _how_ is that possible?"

"I have a theory," Simmons said, "But it's exactly that: a theory. I have absolutely no faith in it because it's never been proven and it's utterly ridiculous to even be considering it, but all things taken into account, I don't really think we can afford to be discarding ideas just because they've never been heard of as true before..." She trailed off, looking down into her mug.

Skye looked down at her arm absentmindedly, wondering how she missed the disappearance of the graze that had been there before. She shook her head, drinking the tea just to try and cheer Simmons up a bit; the other woman looked so ridiculously downcast that it made Skye want to wrap her in a hug and never let go.

"I don't like this," Simmons said, looking up at Skye and Ward, "It just seems wrong. Like... like someone has invaded and taken over the one place we should feel safe. This isn't _right_."

"We need to look at this logically," Ward said quietly, "But nothing about this is logical. You don't cut your arm in your sleep, and then it doesn't just disappear... we're not trained to deal with stuff like this."

"We're trained to deal with weirder." The trio looked around in surprise to see May standing behind them, "You're not going to get anywhere if you just stand around moping all the time."

"So what do we do?" Skye only just left off the 'Miss Smarty-Pants' off the end of her question; she wasn't quite sure how tired May was, but she was still certain that the woman could take her out in her sleep.

"You speculate. You make wild guesses. You take the most bizarre ideas you can come up with. And then you compare them to the situation and see if they work. You forget: Thor was a myth. Use that to your advantage. Sometimes things that seem like they can't be real are more real than you'll ever be."

She left the three in silence, disappearing into the cockpit. Ward met Simmons eyes with a ghost of a smirk on his face.

"Did she just actually quote Nick Fury?"

"I think she might have done, yes."

Skye frowned. "Is there something I'm not getting here?" she asked. Simmons and Ward both shook their heads.

"Tony Stark." They said simply. Skye rolled her eyes at the two of them.

"Well, that was a detailed explanation, thanks for that," she said scornfully. Before the situation could be elaborated any further, Fitz ran in with a look on his face that appeared to be a mixture of glee and horror.

"You guys are going to want to see this," he muttered, placing a laptop on the table in front of them.

* * *

**Bit of a cliffhanger? Just a little bit? Don't worry, it's nothing huge (it really only sets up the plot for this entire story... :3). Like I said, this one was hard to write, but I finally got this out and I like it. But, the question is (because I do this because I enjoy it but I ALSO do it for you lovely readers), what did YOU think?**

**As always, reviews are worded rainbows to lands of magical unicorns and dragons, and anyone who leaves one makes me light up with joy! Everyone who reads this and enjoys it is more than willing to become my best friend. **

**Also, can we just think about that Mid-Season Finale for a second? Because THAT WAS NOT OKAY, MARVEL. NOT. OKAY. **

**Until the next time, dear readers, thank you for reading and TTFN!**

**P.S. I'll try to update quicker next time. But its like, almost Christmas so... no promises :3**


	4. Just Confusing

**AN: **Yay for reasonably fast updates! I had a sudden urge to write this chapter so... it is th result of an hour and a half's constant writing. I feel like I made it really confusing really fast, so I hope you can still follow... I'm hoping to straighten it out a bit more in the next chapter. And then have some proper action. And then resolve the whole thing. All in all, I think we're looking at it being the same length as the last one (though, if that happens, then all of my AoS fics will have to be 10 chapters :L). Enjoy!

_Italics_ = Dream

* * *

_**Previously-**_

_Before the situation could be elaborated any further, Fitz ran in with a look on his face that appeared to be a mixture of glee and horror._

"_You guys are going to want to see this," he muttered, placing a laptop on the table in front of them._

* * *

"And what exactly are we looking at?" Skye asked. The image on Fitz's screen was clearly the schematics for the Bus but, in two different locations, coloured circles appeared, flashing away for an unknown reason.

"What you're looking at," Fitz started, "Are the readings I've taken from the plane in the last ten minutes, but sped up massively and put on a loop," he said, "The circles that pop up? Temporal displacement energy."

"Fitz, we ruled temporal displacement out when we couldn't find any residue energy-"

"It's not normal temporal displacement," Fitz interrupted Simmons, pausing to give her an apologetic look before continuing, "Because that _would_ leave some kind of energy behind, even if it was just short term. This is _definitely_ temporal displacement, I wrote my _thesis_ on that theory, do you have any idea how long that project took me to research?!"

"Three months, two weeks and six days," Simmons said immediately, "And you hacked into the CIA, the FBI and NASA to get the information you wanted."

"You hacked NASA?!" Skye laughed, "Dude, that's awesome, why have I not heard about this before?!"

"Off topic," Ward interrupted, "And could someone please explain what 'temporal displacement' even _is_?!"

"I second that question," Skye agreed, drinking more tea before remembering what was in the cup and grimacing.

"Short or long definition?" Fitz asked, clicking away at his screen.

"Short," Skye and Ward said immediately, not even bothering to smirk at each other when they spoke in unison (in all honesty, it seemed to be happening a lot, and the two often joked that they were becoming more like FitzSimmons by the day).

"Essentially," Fitz looked away from his screen momentarily to direct his attention to them, "Time travel. To a different world. Kind of."

Skye frowned, "Well that was... detailed. And arguably more confusing than the long definition."

"You haven't heard the long definition," Simmons said frowning.

"And that's why I said 'arguably'."

"So what do the circles indicate?" Ward asked, once again trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Temporal displacement energy," Fitz supplied, "If there are circles around an area, then some sort of distorted time travel is happening there."

"Why distorted?" Simmons asked curiously, moving from behind the counter to stand on Fitz's left, looking intently at the screen, "What makes it different?"

"Well, for a start it isn't constant," Fitz told her, "That's why they're flashing. Every second, the energy drops out, leaving absolutely no leftover energy behind, and then reappears again straight afterwards. For another thing, it's almost as if it sticks to the plane; the plane is constantly moving, and the energy moves with it. And, finally, it's not only in one location. Which either means they lead to two different places and it's coincidental that they both appeared at roughly the same time, _or_ the feed is connected to two different objects."

"Er, guys?" FitzSimmons turned around to look at Skye, "Three things. Number one: Ward just passed out, and if someone doesn't make sure he's okay, I might have a panic attack. Number two: there are now three circles flashing on the screen. And number three: the circles are here, Coulson's office and the cockpit. It doesn't take a genius to work out that the feeds aren't connected to objects, they're connected to people."

* * *

_Ward wanted to be annoyed that he'd let himself fall asleep but he was reasonably sure that it wasn't his fault. One moment he was absolutely fine, the next he felt himself slipping away. He knew, from experience of exhaustion (and being hit in the head by very heavy objects), that he hadn't fallen into any kind of natural unconsciousness. _

_And he knew that he __**had**__ to be asleep, because he was standing at the edge of that well again, and he was more than certain that it had been destroyed years ago. Therefore, he was dreaming or, rather, having a nightmare. _

_He looked around, finding himself surrounded by forest; yet another indication that he wasn't really there. The well had never been surrounded by forest. _

_He froze, even his thoughts grinding to a stop, as he saw bushes to his left rustling. Accompanying this were crashes and yells coming from deep within the forest, and Ward began to realise that maybe he really wasn't alone. _

_It should have been at least slightly comforting to know that there were other people out there but having heard Skye recalling her own nightmare and hearing of the ominous voice that had chased her, Ward wasn't particularly reassured. _

"_Who's there?" he called out, feeling utterly ridiculous and as if he'd fallen into an incredibly clichéd horror movie, "Show yourself!" the rustling in the bushes stopped._

"_Ward?" the man in question jumped, not expecting anyone to answer, then did a double take. _

"_**May**__?!" May's head appeared from behind the bush, and Ward smirked slightly to hide his surprise, "I thought you were supposed to be good at stealth. I heard you rustling around from over here!" _

"_I was trying to get whatever it was to come to me," she muttered, "Not that you'd understand using an unexpected strategy."_

"_Wow, touchy," Ward muttered, "Alright, maybe now isn't the time to be arguing tactics. What did you mean 'it'?"_

"_You weren't chased out here?" May asked, frowning._

"_You __**were**__ chased out here?" Ward countered, "Skye said she was chased in her dream..."_

"_I don't think it's a dream," May muttered, "It's not reality, not our reality at least, but it's not a dream." _

"_Fitz was saying something about temporal displacement? Ward supplied, "Said it was distorted. I didn't really understand what he was saying but-"_

_He broke off as the sounds of fighting in the forest came nearer and both he and May dropped into fighting stances, ready for attack. _

_Seconds later, Coulson came tumbling out, fighting... well, thin air apparently. Both Ward and May stood up straight, looking at their boss as if he was completely insane._

"_I suppose we should have guessed it would be Coulson," Ward muttered._

"_It seems the obvious third choice, doesn't it?" May asked rhetorically, "Whatever it is, it's split the team up. Taken away the ones capable of protecting everyone else and shoved them all together fighting something that we can't even see."_

"_That doesn't make sense," Ward replied, "It targeted Skye first. Why would it get to her and then leave her behind with FitzSimmons?"_

"_I think we have more pressing problems," May launched a kick at the thin air attacking Coulson as the man stumbled between the two of them, her foot landing on something... well, that was the only way to describe it: 'something'. _

_Coulson laughed incredulously as he punched the thing, "I might have guessed you'd want a piece of the action."_

"_I've had enough action of my own," May replied, smirking, "Can you see this thing?"_

"_Nope," Coulson replied, laughing again at the ridiculousness of the situation, "But it decided to start on me. I couldn't allow that."_

"_You sound like Barton," May told him, "Or, come to think of it, Romanoff- on a bad day." _

"_I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not," Coulson noted dryly._

"_Do you two always make small talk whilst fighting for your lives?" Ward questioned, observing the two apparently kicking serious ass from afar. _

"_Only on good days," Coulson said, smirking._

"_Well, could I suggest running?" Ward offered, "Because, as much as I love watching you guys attacking thin air, I forgot my camera, so it's getting kind of boring."_

"_Well, we can't have that," May agreed, landing a well-aimed kick to the thing's head and smiling with satisfaction at the resulting thump as it fell to the ground. _

_The three stood in silence before bursting into hysterical laughter._

"_This is absurd," Coulson managed to say after a while. _

"_Completely insane," May agreed, though much more soberly (her laughing had stopped a while before the other two). _

"_Is any of this even- __**OW**_._" Ward stopped himself, his hand moving to hold the right side of his ribs. _

"_What is it?" Coulson said, immediately serious again, the laughter forgotten._

"_Nothing," Ward muttered, "It just felt like someone was kicking me in the ribs- OW. For god's sake, what's happening?!"_

"_I think," May said thoughtfully, "Someone might be kicking you in the ribs."_

"_That makes no sense." Ward told her bluntly._

"_It makes a lot of sense," she replied, "If this is another reality then-" suddenly she was talking to an empty space, and she had to shake herself slightly to remind herself that she hadn't imagined Ward's existence. _

* * *

Ward woke up with aching ribs and a near-hysterical Skye getting ready to kick him again.

"_What in the name of sanity are you doing_?" he asked, scrambling up from the floor to put a distance between himself and Skye's leg.

"Go, this way," Skye ignored his question and pushed him in the direction of cockpit, "Kind of slightly a really big emergency."

"Okay..." Ward muttered, "Though I have some kind of big news. The other two circles on Fitz's screen, they were-"

"May and Coulson, yes we know," Skye interrupted, "You've been asleep for almost an hour, we've had to make do without you. But, uh oh, guess who forgot to put the plane in auto-pilot. The answer is May, in case you're wondering, and we're about to fly into restricted airspace and we've got scary Russian people shouting at us and we don't know what it means, but I got the general idea that if we didn't get the hell out of this area, they were going to attack us with really big guns." Skye spoke with a single breath, allowing some of her panic to become evident, Ward took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly in a non-verbal attempt to comfort her.

"I'm so confused," Ward muttered after a moment, climbing into the cockpit where May was still asleep in the pilot's chair.

"Yeah, well join the club," Skye replied, sighing, "And get flying."

*. . .*

On the opposite side of the plane, FitzSimmons were in their lab, throwing 3D CGI models around, trying to imagine a device that would be capable of causing the chaos on the plane.

"Nope," Fitz disregarded yet another of his ideas, "This is impossible. My thesis could have been written by a _toddler_ if you were going to compare it to this rubbish."

"Getting angry won't solve anything, Fitz," Simmons said, her tone a mixture of sympathy and annoyance, "Just move on and try again. Remember what May said? Take the most bizarre thing you can think of and apply it to the situation." Just as she finished talking, the theoretical model she had been putting together exploded into flames, making her jump back in surprise despite the explosion only being metaphorical. "Oh, for goodness sake!" she said, "This is impossible! Nothing on this earth could possibly cause anything even remotely similar to this situation!" Fitz froze, his hands in the air as he stopped making his new model.

"That's it," he muttered, turning to Simmons with a look of ecstatic surprise on his face, "That's _it_! Oh, Jemma, you're a bloody genius!" he kissed her fiercely on the lips, making her blush (it wasn't the first time it had happened either, and it always seemed to be times when she completely forgot that she and Fitz were in a very happy relationship when he surprised her in such a way).

"What did I do?" she asked, slightly breathless as he pulled away.

"Nothing _on this earth_," Fitz quoted, "But we haven't considered anything a bit more... extraterrestrial." Simmons' eyes widened before she grinned.

"Thor," she agreed, "That was only a few months ago. We could easily have missed something in the clean-up, we had to leave early for the big staff thingy..." Fitz grinned.

"Back to the drawing board," he said, crossing his arms as he thought, "But this time: think like an alien."

* * *

**Like I said, I hope that wasn't TOO confusing... do let me know if it was, I'll try and resolve it in the next chapter :3 In case anyone was wondering, this fic takes place roughly 15 months after 'The Girl in the Flower Dress' in terms of the actual show; I'm currently writing as though the current series is taking place during the 1 year gap between this fic and 'What's the Point?'. **

**Your reviews are like sunshine covered in glitter and it means so much to me that you guys are enjoying this fic and have also enjoyed What's the Point?, especially seeing as the latter of the two was just a spur of the moment idea that I had to write down. You have no idea how happy your enjoyment makes me :') Until the next time, my dear readers, thank you ever so much for reading! TTFN :)**


	5. Just a Theory

**AN:** *waves* Hi! I apologise for being quite a little bit late with this chapter (I don't even care that that doesn't make sense), BUT BUT BUT: I have excuses: 1. Christmas, 2. New Years, 3. I have mocks week in 2 weeks (yyaaay... -.-) and I'm drastically, hilariously unprepared. However, I spent yesterday watching Marvel back-to-back, and found the motivation to finish this chapter. Fanfiction, however, had other ideas and decided I couldn't upload it, so.. all blame goes to fanfiction, I am in the clear!

I know I said I would try to make things a bit clearer in this chapter, but I think I actually made things more confusing. Ah, well. Enjoy!

* * *

_**Previously-**_

_"__Nothing _on this earth_,__" Fitz quoted, "But we haven't considered anything a bit more... extraterrestrial." Simmons' eyes widened before she grinned._

_"Thor," she agreed, "That was only a few months ago. We could easily have missed something in the clean-up, we had to leave early for the big staff thingy..." Fitz grinned._

_"Back to the drawing board," he said, crossing his arms as he thought, "But this time: think like an alien."_

* * *

Ward and Skye had dragged May to her bunk so that Ward could occupy her seat and fly the plane. Piloting certainly wasn't his forte, nor had he ever flown something as big and advanced as the Bus solo, but he managed.

"So, what did I miss?" he asked Skye, who was sat in the co-pilot's seat, staring out of the window absentmindedly.

She smirked as she glanced sideways at him, "You mean whilst you were playing Sleeping Beauty?" she teased. Ward rolled his eyes.

"I'll have you know, I was watching Coulson and May kick serious invisible ass." Skye gaped.

"_Invisible_?!" she exclaimed, "Does _nothing_ stop those two from fighting something off?!"

"Apparently not," Ward shrugged, "Anyway: what did I miss?" he asked again.

"When you passed out, I stated the obvious," Skye told him, looking out the window again, "The feed for the temporal thingy isn't connected to objects, it's connected to people; as soon as you passed out, there were three flashing circles on Fitz's screen. So we figured that the other circles were Coulson and May. Did you really see them in your dream?" she asked.

"More than saw," he muttered, "I found May hiding in a bush, and then Coulson fell out of a forest fighting thin air. Except it obviously wasn't thin air, because May landed a kick on its head and it went down."

"Wow," Skye said quietly, "That's almost as bad as being chased through a forest by... well, whatever I was chased through a forest by." Ward paused for a moment, staring at the controls absentmindedly.

"These dreams," he said quietly, "Do you think... do you think we create them?"

"I don't understand," Skye said, looking confused.

"When I... when I was dreaming," he started, "I was suddenly in this... it was almost a field, but smaller, surrounded by forest. I was alone, but I could hear Coulson and I didn't know it then, but May was about ten feet away. But the first thing I noticed was that well."

"_The_ well?" Skye asked, surprised, "You said that had been destroyed."

"It has," Ward said quickly, "That's why I was wondering... if we make these dreams ourselves then why would I put that in there?" Skye placed he hand on top of his comfortingly.

"It's a bad memory from your past," she shrugged, "What else would you have in your nightmares?"

"I've seen a lot worse than that well, Skye," Ward said, scoffing quietly, "Why would I show myself the well?" Skye had never, neither during, nor prior to, their relationship, seen Ward confused. She'd seen him angry, happy, upset, calm, but never confused. There were times when he didn't particularly understand (namely whenever FitzSimmons opened their mouths about sciency stuff, and she could empathise with him on that), but he was never _confused_.

"Well, maybe we're not in control," Skye said, shrugging, "Maybe whatever causes this just picks out something bad from our minds and throws it in. We don't know anything about what's going on here, Grant. Just... don't think about it, for now at least. Enjoy the view!" Ward chuckled at the last part, staring intently out of the windscreen into dense grey clouds that hid the world on the ground below.

"Alright," he said, squeezing her hand, which was still on top of his, "I'll forget about it. I was just... curious, you know?" Skye nodded.

"I know," she replied. "So what does that button do?" she asked, pointing to a random button on the console.

"It stops the windscreen from icing up." Ward told her.

"What about that one?"

"That's the windscreen wipers."

"That one?"

"_Don't touch that one_," Ward said quickly. Skye raised an amused eyebrow at his panic. "That one turns off the power for the entire plane, including the engines."

"What about... that one?"

"...That's the light switch, Skye."

* * *

Not long after Ward took control of the plane, Coulson emerged from his office, straightening his tie and examining himself for injuries from his dramatic encounter with thin air. He was struggling to get his head around the situation, if he was quite honest; what was happening in the dream was obviously real but he wasn't sure _how_ it was real. It was confusing and impossible and it just felt _wrong_.

He walked in the direction of the cockpit, wondering who was flying the plane if May was still asleep (which she had been when he'd left her mere moments before). This was confirmed as he passed her bunk to find that she'd been placed (completely unceremoniously) on her bed. He smirked slightly, considering getting her a blanket before deciding against it; there definitely was not time for blankets, and May probably wouldn't appreciate it anyway.

He reached the cockpit, poking his head in to find Ward in the pilot's seat.

"Oh, thank god," he said, making both Ward and Skye jump, "For a minute, I was worried that FitzSimmons had control of the plane." Ward smirked.

"Seems like the kids were doing just fine without us," he said, glancing at Skye who looked decisively smug.

"We've worked this entire thing out," she said, proudly, "Well, most of it. We've got the important details. Well, the general ideas of the important details."

"So you've got a basic grip on the situation?" Coulson said, raising his eyebrows. Skye made a face at him.

"FitzSimmons are working on it," she said, "Is May still out?"

Coulson nodded, "I'm not surprised," he said, frowning, "If they're looking to take out our fighters but keep us all alive, she'd be the one to take out of the equation. The real question is how they've done it."

"I would have gone with _who_ is doing it," Skye said.

"Skye, red button, three in from the right, press it, please," Ward said, and Skye quickly turned back to the array of buttons and switches in front of her, pressing the button Ward had mentioned.

"If we know how, we can stop it," Coulson told her, "Knowing who is only going to give someone to throw in a prison cell afterwards." Skye shrugged.

"But the who is more likely to know the how than we are," she said. Coulson frowned before shaking his head.

"I feel like this situation just gets more confusing the more we talk about it." He grumbled.

"_Guys, we have just come up with the most amazing and totally possible theory!_" Simmons' excited voice came over the intercom.

"I've got a feeling it's about to get a lot more confusing," Ward muttered, setting the plane to autopilot having guided them out of restricted airspace.

"Fantastic," Coulson muttered.

* * *

As the three made their way towards the Holocom, May emerged from her room.

"Did I hear Simmons say something about a theory?" she asked Coulson quietly.

"Yes," Coulson replied, "How was it in the other world when you left?"

"Weird," May muttered, "It looked familiar but I can't place it." Coulson frowned concernedly.

"Fitz said he had pictures of the place in Skye's dream, exactly how she described it," he said, "Maybe he's got an idea."

"I doubt it's anything too important," May followed him into the briefing room, "I'd rather hear this theory first."

"Right," Fitz said once they'd all entered the room, projecting the model he and Simmons had created onto the big screen in front of the team, "This is our theory."

"That looks like more than a theory," Ward said, "That looks like a weapon."

"To a certain extent, it _is_ a weapon," Simmons agreed, "Though the actual aesthetics of it are completely made up; it's the idea of a device like this one that actually makes up the theory."

"And a device like this one is...?" Coulson prompted.

"Alien," Fitz said, "We're assuming it's something left over in the fallout from the Thor incident. Our best guess is that it somehow ended up miles away from the rest of the wreckage and someone found it. I hear the there's been a certain hankering for alien goods since New York."

"More specifically," Simmons added, "It's a reality manipulator."

"Well, doesn't that sound fancy?!" Skye muttered sarcastically.

"What does it do?" Ward asked, frowning at the device on the screen in front of them.

"Short explanation or long explanation?" Fitz asked.

"Short," Skye and Ward said immediately (May and Coulson suddenly got an overwhelming feeling of _FitzSimmons_ from the other people in the room).

"We know there are other worlds," Fitz said, "And it's been speculated for decades that alternate realities can exist without knowing about one another. When you look at Thor and the fact that he believes in magic, it's not too difficult to believe that whoever else exists in _our_ universe has somehow found a way to go to alternate universes."

"We think," Simmons continued, "That this device somehow... makes the gaps between our reality and alternate realities smaller. The most likely idea we could come up with is that when this reality brushes against another reality, your consciousness separates from your body to join with the consciousness in the other reality."

The room was silent for a moment before Skye spoke, "Please tell me I'm not the only one who understood about three words of that?"

"You _did_ ask for the short explanation," Fitz said smugly, "When are you going to learn that the short version is generally more confusing?"

Simmons sighed, silently agreeing with Fitz but choosing not to say anything, "The reason alternate realities don't interact with each other is because of distance," she started again, "They're too far away to affect each other. The device brings them closer together, so that, every so often, they touch. When this happens, your consciousness-"

"You could describe it as your soul, if you want to get deep about it," Fitz interrupted.

"Your _consciousness_," Simmons continued, glaring at him, "Joins with the one the alternate-you possesses, so the two versions of you in the two different universes effectively become one person."

"So what, someone buys this thing and somehow gets it on the plane?" Skye asked, frowning, "Why would they do that?"

"More importantly, can we locate it?" Coulson questioned.

FitzSimmons glanced at each other, "We don't know," Simmons said apologetically, "Whatever this thing is, it should show up on our systems, but it isn't."

"I updated those systems a week ago," Skye said defensively when Coulson turned to her, "Trust me, they're working fine unless someone's done something to them." Ward frowned slightly.

"_Could_ someone have done something to them?" he asked. Skye considered this.

"Only if they'd known exactly when I updated the system," she said, "And I mean _exactly_ when. Like, _to the second_ when. The system shuts down and then starts back up again, but it literally takes half a minute to make sure all of the updates are loaded up. If someone was going to hack it, not only would they need a way to get inside information, they'd need to be _fast_. That would be the only way to get in a change our systems enough to ignore an alien device onboard."

"How many people do we have on record who could do that?" May asked Coulson.

"Oh, not too many," Coulson said, "Just a few hundred members of the Rising Tide, plus multiple freelance hackers and computer geniuses across the world."

"And what does that have to do with us falling asleep and having nightmares?" Ward asked.

"Well, first of all, they're not nightmares," Fitz said, "You're experiencing whatever the you in the alternate universe is experiencing. The reason it changes every time you fall asleep is because the alternate reality progresses at a different rate to our reality. Well, that's what we think," he added on the end, "This is, of course, completely speculation because we really don't have a bloody clue."

"Also," Simmons said, "You don't fall asleep and then cross over into the alternate reality. Falling asleep is the result, the crossing over is the action that causes it. When your consciousness swaps to the alternate-you, your body effectively shuts down."

"Waiting for you to come back and getting ready to update itself with whatever you experience in the dream, like the cut I had on my arm," Skye said, "Almost like it would happen on a computer system. How ironic. Also, how does that actually work, the whole 'disappearing injury thing'? Because surely that shouldn't cross over?"

"My best guess?" Simmons sounded unsure as she spoke, "For a while after crossing back over from the alternate universe, you effectively experience the same things but in different locations, like you're still linked. After a while, the alternate universe moves further away again, so the connection breaks. But that could be completely wrong, so don't take my word for it. Oh, and if you _do_ end up falling asleep again, try not to get injured, just in case I _am_ wrong." The room was silent as everyone tried to process the insane amount of theoretical information they'd just been given.

"So, when we cross over," Ward said, trying desperately to get answers to some of the thousands in his head, "We experience whatever our alternate counterpart is experiencing, right?"

"We think so," Simmons confirmed.

"Then why don't they experience what we're experiencing?" Ward asked, "Surely we should... well, swap places?"

"The device could be one-way," Fitz said, "Imagine, if you will: every universe has a version of the device, but it can only be controlled in one of them; in this case, it's controlled from our universe. That device becomes the transmitter, and every other device in every other universe becomes the receiver. Therefore, only things from _our_ universe can travel either to or from the alternate universes."

"If we can find this universe's device," Coulson started, "And rendered it unusable, would it stop this happening?"

"It would depend on how close any other alternate realities are," Simmons said, moving over as she offered Fitz the computer, "But if there really is someone controlling it then there's probably something about this universe that's important."

"But it would stop us travelling back to this universe?" Coulson checked. Simmons nodded.

"It should." She replied. Everyone fell silent again, secretly wishing that Ward had never brought it up; all it had really done was add further information for them all to process.

"Well, there's not much solid information to go on," Coulson said quietly, "But it's a start, at least."

"You know what? I've changed my mind," Skye said, shaking her head, "The 'who' isn't important right now. We really need to find this thing and figure out how to get rid of it." She crossed her arms determinedly, starting to get really, _really _pissed off with the entire situation.

"Agreed," Simmons said, "Because, if Fitz and I are right about this device, caffeine isn't going to stop it. We've just been lucky that, so far, the realities have only touched briefly and only in places that affect a few of us at a time."

"Unless that can be controlled too," Fitz put in, "I don't think this device is totally random."

"It's like we said," Ward turned to May, "It's like they separated the people who'd be good in a physical fight from the people who wouldn't. No offense." He added the last part as an afterthought, looking apologetically to FitzSimmons and then to Skye.

"So maybe the 'who' is more important than we originally thought," Coulson said, glancing to Skye, "Alright: Skye, I'd like you to look at the systems; try to find out if our systems have been edited and, if they have, get it fixed. FitzSimmons, work on perfecting this theory; the more we can guess at, the bigger the chance that we'll get something right. May, Ward, we'll try to find this thing the old fashioned way: using our eyes. After that-"

He stopped as the lights suddenly went out, the red of the emergency system lighting up the room seconds later.

"Well, that's all we need," Coulson muttered, "Has the power gone off in the whole plane?" Simmons frowned, glancing behind her to find the big screen still on.

"Actually, sir, I think it's just the lights..." she said, confused.

"May, go and check the flight controls," Coulson ordered, "If someone's taking out the plane, we need to know, quickly, or we're just going to drop out of the sky."

"Don't bother," Skye re-entered the room, returning from a window she's just been standing by, "We're not flying."

"Of course we're flying," Fitz said immediately, "No one's landed the plane, so we must be flying."

"Fitz, trust me, we are on the ground," Skye argued, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"She's right," Ward said, also returning from the window, "We're in a field and, guess what? We're surrounded by forest."

"Well, whoever's doing this obviously has a forest fetish," Skye said "That should narrow our list of suspects down."

"We're dreaming," May said, stating the truth they were all thinking, "All of us. Looks like all of our other dreams were test runs."

"Yeah," Coulson muttered, "And now we're playing the big game."

"Er, guys," Fitz's voice was quiet as he looked up from the computer screen worriedly," I think we may have a more pressing issue."

"What do you mean by 'pressing'?" Coulson asked warily.

"There are six members on the team," Fitz said, "But I'm reading seven signs of life on the plane." Ward's face hardened as Fitz turned the screen around to show them what he'd just described, starting to move towards the weapons cupboard at the side of the room.

"We've got company."

* * *

**Yay! I'm finally getting to the action-y bits! This excites me muchly :3**

**So, confusing? Anyone confused? Don't be shy: let me know! Reviews are my babies (and I receive 12% of the credit for all of them.. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages later aren't I? #almostAvengersquotes) and I love any and all reviews dearly, so make my day and pllleeeaassee leave one! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and I thank you ever so much for reading! Until the next time: TTFN!**


	6. Just an Old Enemy

**AN: **Hello! I honestly can't remember when I last updated because I've been swamped under mock exams and I'm literally drowning in key words in two languages and equations, but I am here with an update! You guys should all be very grateful too; I had 2 two-hour long exams today and I had to write so much that my thumb is now strapped up because I sprained it *claps self slowly* but I came home and decided to write this for you because it's getting to the exciting bit!

WARNING: This chapter contains several references to **What's the Point? **and, though I tried to not make them important references I may have stolen a certain character who is now making this much more of a sequel than originally planned but I'm babbling nonsense now so I will hush. Enjoy!

* * *

_**Previously-**_

"_There are six members on the team," Fitz said, "But I'm reading seven signs of life on the plane." Ward's face hardened as Fitz turned the screen around to show them what he'd just described, starting to move towards the weapons cupboard at the side of the room._

"_We've got company."_

* * *

"Yes, I believe you do."

The entire team turned quickly towards the doorway, coming face-to-face with a smirking Cameron. Ward had his gun trained on the man within seconds, placing himself in front of Skye so that she was shielded from him. Coulson also had his firearm out and May was crouched slightly, ready to fight if the need arose.

"Well, it's wonderful to see all of you again, too," Cameron said sarcastically, entering the room and ignoring the weapons trained on him, "If anything, it should be _me_ pointing a gun at _you_; I haven't done anything bad to you, whereas _you_ put me in prison for a grand total of two hundred and eight years. I've never understood sentences like that, I mean, I'm obviously not going to live for another two hundred and eight years..."

"I see what you meant when you said he likes the sound of his own voice," Ward said over his shoulder to Skye who wanted to reply but found herself paralysed with fear. Memories that she had finally put away over half a year ago came rushing back, attacking her with such force that she had to stifle a gasp.

_Cameron kidnapping her._

_Cameron's men landing hits repeatedly all over her body, breaking several of her ribs, and that __**goddamn metal pole**__..._

_Cameron with a gun, giving her ten seconds to surrender._

_That feeling of wanting to die, believing that the team hated her, thinking that she didn't matter._

_Remembering that if she let Cameron kill her she'd be betraying the team yet again. _

_Recognising that the team were her only way out. Feeling that she was trapped unless they could find her, needing the team more than ever before, finally realising just how important they were. _

_Falling into Ward's arms when they finally rescued her, never feeling safer, needing his arms around her as she felt herself slip away. _

Skye placed a hand on Ward's back, silently letting him know that she was driving herself slightly insane, simultaneously needing to feel that closeness again, reassuring herself that Ward was with her and he wouldn't let Cameron hurt her again.

"I'm sorry, did you just say that you didn't do anything bad to us?" Coulson asked, looking at the man as if he was completely mad (which, if his S.H.I.E.L.D. psych. evaluation was anything to go by, he was), "You hurt one of us, you hurt all of us. You're lucky S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't just dump you in the ocean for your crimes with the Rising Tide. It probably would have solved us quite a few problems. Such as this one."

"Oh, I wouldn't say this was a _problem_," Cameron said, frowning, "This is just a little game. Prison does get ever so boring after a while, you see. I thought I should have something to entertain myself with. I must congratulate your resident scientists," he continued, turning to FitzSimmons, who concurrently backed three steps away from the man, "They worked out far more than I originally expected them to. You're not quite there yet though."

"There's a device," Skye said quietly, "You hacked our systems so that they wouldn't pick it up, so that we didn't find it until after your... _game_ had begun."

"Very good," Skye wondered if it was his British accent that made him sound condescending or whether it was just his _ass-hat_ attitude, "What else?"

"Why don't you just tell us what you're planning?" Coulson interrupted, "Surely that would make things a lot easier for everyone."

"Oh, Agent Coulson," Cameron leaned against the wall behind him, surveying Coulson critically, "Whoever said that this game was going to be easy? Or _fair_, for that matter? No, I am the master of this game. And I think it's about time I stepped it up a little bit.

"The last few times you've experienced moving from one reality to another, you've all fallen asleep. Not anymore. That really was just me giving you a few clues, though it took you longer to work it out than I expected it to. I'll put that down to the controversy surrounding reality manipulation," he turned to FitzSimmons again, "Your model of the reality manipulator was incredibly detailed. You're wasted at S.H.I.E.L.D., I'll give you both that, and you got the majority of its key functions right. So, from now on, you will have to use your skill and knowledge to determine which world is your reality. If you are as observant as spies should be, then it shouldn't be too difficult for you."

"We're not spies," Ward growled. Cameron smiled.

"Ah, yes," he said, "What _are_ you exactly? Does your job actually _have_ a socially accepted name? No matter; this game may prove more difficult for you, then. Now, if you die in the dream world, you will wake up in your reality. Ask me what happens if you die in reality."

"Oh. My. God." FitzSimmons looked shocked as they stared at Cameron, speaking the three words at the same time. Ward frowned.

"What?" he asked, his tone clearly indicating that they didn't have time for any FitzSimmons shenanigans at that point.

"Sorry, he just..." Fitz shook his head, shocked, "He paraphrased Doctor Who."

Ward's eyes closed momentarily as he tried to stop himself snapping at them, turning back to Cameron, "If we die in our reality, then we _die_, just like we would out of your stupid _game_." The word 'game' rolled off his tongue bitterly, just as it had with Skye when she had said it minutes earlier.

"Not as stupid as you look, Agent Ward," Cameron commended, smirking, "You may as well put your weapons down, you know; as I've just explained, they'll hardly kill me whilst we're in this reality. Killing me prematurely here will only limit the information I give you."

"Then the clock is ticking," Coulson said, beginning to lose patience, "So tell us what you want us to know."

Cameron looked at him again, his eyes apparently seeing something more, "Yes... the clock certainly is ticking." As if to emphasise the fact, he glanced down at the obviously very expensive watch on his wrist, "Seventy two seconds and counting. From now on, you'll only wake up if you die in the alternate reality, the 'dream' reality. To ensure that you don't die, I'd suggest paying extra attention to your surroundings and to each other.

"Your scientists were quite right when they said that if you destroy the device in the alternate reality, then you return to your own universe. Really, the game is simple: find and destroy the device in this reality. But there is, of course, a catch: destroy the device in your _real_ reality, and you'll get stuck here; let's just say that this isn't a reality you really want to be stuck in. Not to mention, when you're in your reality, the alternate versions of you in the other universe have minds of their own; they could go anywhere, do anything.

"I suppose I should wish you luck, but seeing as I control this game, I think it's slightly pointless," he glanced down at his watch again, "One last thing: I'd stay away from the forest, if I were you." With that, he vanished, leaving the team alone in the briefing room.

* * *

Skye had to remind herself that having a panic attack wouldn't be particularly helpful at this point, leaning on the Holocom as Ward and Coulson holstered their weapons. She let her head flop forwards, closing her eyes and starting to count to infinity in an attempt to calm herself. Ward placed a hand on the small of her back and she leaned into his touch slightly.

"How is he doing this?" she muttered, "He should be in prison."

"He is in prison," Coulson assured her, "But like Simmons said: he's bound to have contacts. I'll look into it when we get back."

"When we get back permanently, you mean," Skye said bitterly, looking up again, "God, he is such an ass-hat! Why is he doing this?!"

"Because he's a sadist sociopath with psychotic tendencies?" Simmons offered. The team turned to look at her and she shrugged, "Well... he _is_. I thought that made him qualify as an, er... arse-hat?" Skye smirked slightly.

"That insult doesn't sound as good when said by a British person," she noted, "It doesn't even sound like an insult..."

"I have a question," Ward said, "How do we know that we haven't changed realities already?"

"Are we flying?" Skye asked. May moved to look out of the window and shook her head.

"We're still on the ground."

"So Cameron's gone and we're not," Coulson said, "Why?"

"It's like I said," Fitz muttered, "It's probably controlled by the device. Depending on how advanced the civilisation who created it is, it could do any number of things."

"I have a better question," May said, still looking out of the window, "Why do we stay away from the forest?"

Coulson frowned, "If past experience is anything to go by, there are things in the forest that we can't fight. Unless you're May, apparently." He muttered the last part, glancing at Ward who smirked slightly in response.

"I'm willing to bet that Cameron's going to step up on that fact as well," Skye said, "Maybe he'll fill it with our deepest fears or something." Ward groaned.

"Don't give him ideas!" he muttered. Skye shrugged.

"If I can think of it, so can he." She replied, "So I don't know about you guys, but I'm staying out of the forest."

"Agreed," Coulson said, "And if we return to this reality and find ourselves in the forest, then we get out as quickly as possible, alright?" the rest of the team nodded. "Good. Now, I think we should split up-"

"NO!" Coulson jumped at the shout from FitzSimmons and Skye, both May and Ward also looking confused.

"What?!" Coulson asked.

"Have you never _seen_ Scooby-Doo?!" Simmons asked disbelievingly, "Things always go wrong when you split up!"

"Yeah, with the monsters and the running..." Fitz shook his head, "No, splitting up is definitely a bad idea."

Coulson sighed, "Well, it's going to take us much longer to find the device if we stay together," he argued.

"Give me a few minutes with the system and I might be able to find it without us having to wander around in the dark," Skye said, nudging Ward out of the way, reaching for a tablet on the other side of him.

Just before she could reach the device, however, the lights flickered on and she froze, "Did we just switch realities?"

"I believe we did, yes." Fitz answered after a silence-filled moment.

"I'm going to go and fly the plane," May said, "You should probably buckle up; we don't know how long we've been in the other reality and we're losing altitude. This could be a bumpy landing."

Without another word, she left the room, the team quickly following her out and heading to the lounge area to strap in. When they were seated on the sofas, Skye looked back towards the briefing room, wondering how Cameron was controlling her yet again, despite knowing almost the exact details of his plan.

Ward took her hand in his and she turned her head to face him, smiling slightly to reassure him that she was fine.

"That was unexpected, huh?" he said, his tone slightly joking and Skye was grateful for his attempt to make light of a bad situation.

"It was one hell of a plot twist," she agreed, grinning as she leaned her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her, hugging her to him tightly.

"He won't hurt you again," he said quietly, "I won't _let_ him hurt you again. I promise, Skye." She nodded against his arm, squeezing his hand.

"I know," she replied, "Grant?"

"Hmm?" he replied, his chin resting on the top of her head.

"After all of this is over, can we go away? Like, on vacation?"

Ward smiling slightly, "Where would you want to go?"

"I don't know," Skye shrugged, "Somewhere hot, sunny, good food..."

"So Italy?" Ward said, chuckling, "Italy sounds good." Skye smiled.

"Italy would work." She agreed, "So after all of this, after we stop Cameron, _again_, we're going to Italy. Deal?"

"Deal." Skye sat up, looking around at the others, finding FitzSimmons cuddling together on one end of the other couch, and Coulson pointedly ignoring both couples, giving them some space, at the opposite end. Neither Skye nor Ward mentioned that they and the team didn't really have a clue what they were doing; sure, it sounded easy to fix the system, locate the alien device and destroy it, but Cameron was behind the wheel, _he_ was in control.

In Skye's eyes, with Cameron in charge of the game, the only outcome was for them to lose.

* * *

**Ahh I felt like that was confusing (I seem to be saying this a lot...). If you guys haven't realised yet, this story is kind of like a mixture of the Doctor Who episode 'Amy's Choice' and the movie Inception (which I love to pieces). **

**I feel like this story is so drastically different from What's the Point? that it's changed my writing... and I'm not sure if I like it. Do you like it? I'm just not sure :/**

**Throw me a review if you want to give me Rounders practice... kidding. Review if you'd like to make a British girl very happy during her very difficult mocks week (I have to sit almost 17 hours worth of exams in a week guys! That's worth a review, right?). I love you all for reading! TTFN :)**


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